Old Dog, New Tricks

Over the past few months,
I’ve discovered quite a
few things, thus proving the
old adage that you’re never too
old to learn. Reading is meant
to accomplish “the four Es”—enriching, enlightening, entertaining,
and educating—and in
that spirit I’d like to share five
lessons I’ve recently learned.

My first lesson—which was
provided by Elliot Michael of
Rumble Seat Music—concerns
a circa-1969 Ampeg Lucite bass.
A lot of us already know about
the Ampeg Lucite bass and its
quirks—its clear Lucite body
that weighs a ton, the fact that
it has the weirdest scale length
on the planet, and how impossible
it is to intonate due to its
Danelectro-style bridge with a
one-piece wooden saddle.

At the Arlington Guitar Show,
I walked into Elliot’s booth
to see a matched set of Lucite
Ampegs—a guitar and a bass—in
see-through black. Staring at
these instruments, I thought,
“Wow, those are very cool modern
repros!” I’m the bass guy who
has supposedly seen it all, but I
was quickly educated: They were
real-deal, original issue. I did not
know black Lucite basses were
ever made!

The bass had a few prototypical
features that made it even
more intriguing. There was a
scoop in the body to facilitate
pickup swapping—something I’d
never seen on an original Lucite
Ampeg bass. It also had a chrome
tab screwed to the body covering
the scoop. Further, it didn’t have
as sharp of a ridge on the body as
the standard basses. This was the
coolest bass in the show. When
I asked my bass buddies if they
saw this Ampeg, they all replied,
“You mean the reissue?”

My second lesson concerns
beer and Rickenbackers. What
does beer have to do with bass
playing other than saving you
from jamming knitting needles
into your eardrums when you
hear a lousy player? The answer
comes courtesy of Andrew
Southern of Brooklyn, New York,
who points out that Grolsch beer
bottles with the porcelain swing
top have a red rubber gasket that
works perfectly as a strap lock
over your Rickenbacker’s strap
button! Grab two and rest easy—they won’t mar the finish because
they rest on your strap. Unlike
a metal-button system, they’re
not 100 percent foolproof, but
none of those store-bought locks
will fit your old Ricky without
destroying its strap-pin hole. This
is a neat tip and it’s free (other
than your bar tab).

And my third lesson revolves
around 1960s Fender mother-of-toilet-seat pickguards. Fender
started to use mother-of-toilet-seat
(aka MOTS) for either their
back layer or top and back layer
of the multi-ply pickguards in
the mid to late ’60s. These guards
were notorious for their destructive
tendencies on Telecaster
basses (which had MOTS in
the back layer). Mustang basses
used MOTS as the face and
back layers. A cool thing the
plastic does is change color over
time. Most of the time it turns
amber. Occasionally it turns
orange, green, or even pink. At
the Arlington Show, a dealer
tapped me on the shoulder and
said, “Did you see the 1970
Competition Orange Mustang
bass?” Yes, I had. The dealer
continued, “Too bad about the
repro ’guard, huh?” The ’guard
looked repro, but it was not. It
had turned violet and it was 100
percent original. You just never
know what you are going to see!

Lesson four: Not all Ernie
Ball Music Man parts are interchangeable.
Yes, this was another
“Arlingtonism.” A dealer walked
to my booth and offered me a
trade for his tidy Mocha B00
StingRay. Maybe I was bleary-eyed
from going to see the
Yankees in Game 1 of the ALCS,
or maybe it was instinct, but the
bass struck me as non-Kosher.
Early StingRays have a funny
sideways break angle over the
saddles. That issue was rectified
about two years into production.
Now, here’s what I learned from
this bass: While the bridge assemblies
are interchangeable, they
do not fit the respective models.
The bass at hand was in reality
a B01 or a B02, and someone
had switched the neck plate and
bridge on it. The problem is,
while the bridge bolts up, the
string-through holes between the
bridge and body do not match.
As a result, you cannot feed
strings through the body. What
the prior owner had to do was
feed the strings through the body,
then bolt the bridge plate down,
and finally string and tune the
bass. The strings were essentially
locked in place. Do not pass go,
do not collect $2000!

My fifth lesson was discovering
an essential book. As I travel
the country, I meet scores of
wonderful people. All are enthusiasts,
many are players, and some
are collectors. All these folks can
back up their work. I also meet
a lot of authors, many of whom
do a really good job. They create
a product and shop their work to
publishers, but—as with music—very few “make it.” A few years
ago, I met Detlef Schmidt, who
is a Precision bass aficionado and
has a passion for the early “cowboy
plank” basses. At the time,
he wanted to feature a 1951 that
I co-own in his book, but I am
very private about my stash, as is
the instrument’s other owner.

At Arlington, Detlef presented
me with a hardcover copy of his
book, which I was flattered to
receive. Fender Precision Basses:
1951-1954 is by far the best
single-source knowledge base on
this topic. The book is gorgeous.
The research is dead-on accurate.
The photography is perfect.
This is a must-have from the
knowledge perspective alone. One
superb aspect of the book is that
it’s written “registry” style. Detlef
tracked down as many of these
basses as possible, documented
them, and presented the results in
serial-number order. The way he
captured this info is compelling,
and he shows many typical modifications
that occurred in the ’60s
and ’70s. This is an excellent and
honest presentation of all things
original and modified relating to
early-’50s P basses.

Learning is one of the great
things in life, especially when it’s
about a topic you love. All this
new information came to me in
a barrage that I could not wait to
share, and I hope you enjoyed it.

In our next installment, I’ll
discuss the influential changes
I’ve seen from a vintage-bass
viewpoint. With my 49th birthday
past and my 50th on the
horizon, my report will cover
quite a stretch of time. A lot has
come and gone during those
years, so I hope you’ll check it
out. See you then.

Kevin Borden has
been playing bass since
1975. He is the principal
and co-owner, with
“Dr.” Ben Sopranzetti, of
Kebo’s Bass Works (visit
them online at kebosbassworks.com). You can reach Kevin at
kebobass@yahoo.com. Feel free to call
him KeBo.

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